Anthropic closes a big raise

Author

Alex Wilhelm
March 03, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Top News

  • Anthropic raises $3.5B: With a shiny new $61.5 billion post-money valuation, TWiST500 member company Anthropic is back in the news. Lightspeed Venture Partners led, with help from Bessemer, Cisco, D1, Fidelity, General Catalyst, and others. The company recently released new models, including one tuned for coding, that we were well received. The investment underscores that while some in the market feel that open-source AI models will win the day, there are still lots of believers in the closed-source approach.

  • TSMC to invest $100B in US chipmaking: After previously committing $65 billion, Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC announced another $100 billion worth of investment in the United States. The decision — and POTUS-led press conference — will see the United States reclaim a bit more of the global chip market, though it’s not clear if TSMC’s buildout will shake up the world’s chip flows; no matter, owning chip production has become a national security priority around the world.

  • Ring ring, it’s Perplexity calling: Of all the startups on the TWiST500, none seem to do more big-name deals than Perplexity, the AI-powered search and research tool that has proved a breakout hit amongst consumers. Now, TechCrunch reports that Perplexity is teaming up with DT to make an “AI Phone.” Look for it in Europe next year for less than $1,000. Are we heading for the first really good piece of AI hardware? Perplexity’s backers must certainly hope so.

TWiST500

Apart from the above-noted pieces of news from TWiST500 companies, we could add more. Dub.co has new growth metrics out, for example.

But what matters even more is adding the best European defense startups to the list. Why? Because Europe is about to go through a period of re-armement, thanks to shifting foreign policy from the United States. As the following chart — it didn’t make the show, sadly — makes clear, public-market investors are expecting a bonanza:

So, who should we have our eyes on? Germany’s Helsing (drones) is already on the list. But we are adding:

  • OSL: UK-based OSL builds counter-drone tech that has both commercial and defense contexts. Our view is that there will be several-to-many anti-drone defense startups that become very, very big. Why? Drone-based warfare appears to be the future, and that means lots of money spent fending off the lightweight aerial vehicles.

  • Space Forge: Another entry from the UK, Space Forge is akin to Varda Space here in the States, if you are familiar. The gist is that it wants to offer in-space manufacturing, taking advantage of microgravity environments. Why is this defense? Because having a nation or bloc-level in-orbit science play could become as important as domestically-controlled chip production over time. We’re bullish on the sector, and Europe owning a piece of it.

  • Destinus: With offices around Europe, Destinus is a true continental startup. It’s building autonomous flight technology with both cheap, and more advanced systems on offer. Part of its vision includes the ‘Destinus G’ remote, or AI-piloted “supersonic UAV designed for Mach 2+ interdiction of airborne targets such as enemy aircraft, subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic missiles.” Again, we’re talking drones. Just very speedy examples of the concept.

  • Milrem Robotics: Unmanned tech for weapons systems in war zones, Estonia’s Milrem touts that its technology — which includes unmanned tracked vehicles that can carry various payloads — is already tested on the battlefield in Ukraine. The company’s ‘Vector Robotic Combat Vehicle’ or Vector RCV can be configured to operate like a tank. Sans the need to risk humans at the same time. We love it!

  • Disruptive Industries: Back to the UK, DI appears to be something akin to the EU Palantir. That means its products are ever-so-slightly opaque from the outside. But given the ravenous hunger from global governments for data-driven decision making tools, we’re cautiously bullish on what DI is cooking up.

  • Himera: What nation has had to stress-test battlefield comms lately? Ukraine. Enter Himera, a Ukrainian startup that builds handhelds comms devices that use mesh-tech to stay up. And they are resistant to electronic warfare, which is a huge component of warmaking today.

  • Farsight Vision: One more from Ukraine! Farsight has built technology that turns images into “2D plans and 3D models.” Say, of a particular part of Earth where there’s a lot of fighting going on! The company is also raising money to send gear to Ukrainian troops, which is an important effort.

That’s from a first cut run-through of dozens of contending companies. As always, we’re hungry for insider insights. So email me [email protected] if you know something we should know about which EU-based — and UK-domiciled — defense startups are the best. Now at least we’re up to pace with the market. — Alex

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